The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -2).  Tough call to see who would top the WMNSS firmament.  I give the nod to the U.'s football ladies and their 2-0 week for the following reasons:

• One of those victories is on the road;
• That win was against USC, a program that has once won an NCAA championship;
• The Gophers destroyed them, 4-1.
• They then went home and absolutely immolated Bowling Green at Robbie Stadium, 7-0 (courtesy of the third hat trick in striker Taylor Uhl's career)

Even though they now stand at 3-2, you could make the argument that they program should be ranked in the polls.  Don't know if that would include the Labor Day afternoon game at home against Western Kentucky, a game I will be going to (provided my car works).  They then host their Minnesota Gold Classic by hosting San Diego St. Friday, a game I also plan on going to (provided my car works).


#-2: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1).  Oh, Hugh McCutcheon is coaching the team now?  I thought he would take it easy and only watch from the stands for this year.  At least he deserves it after taking the United States Women's National Team to the gold medal game in the Summer Olympics a month ago.  But hey, maybe he didn't need the vacation.

Besides, he took over a program whose next three games are part of the annual tournament it hosts, plus they're playing three cupcakes.  He probably wanted to make it more of a challenge by officially taking the reins Thursday (thereby relegating interim coach Laura Bush to assistant) and coaching in a game the next day.  No problem anyway, for they swept Long Island.  And then they doubleheader-swept Miami of Ohio and Albany to be named champions of the tourney.

It's impressive, winning three games without dropping a set.  But really, I would rather have seen them lose in a close game to a top program than start out the season 6-0.  I kind of expect this program to pick on schools their own size.  And that's why I put them behind the Gopher soccer team this screening week.

Their first real challenge comes this week.  To fulfill the back half of their home-and-home agreement, the Goofs go to Austin and play Texas Thursday and Friday.  We will finally see how good of a team this really is, and McCutcheon will finally know what he needs to do to take this team to the top.


#-3: Gopher football (Re-Entry!).  I love live sporting events that go late into the night.  That's why I love listening to West Coast games.  And I really love that the Gophers-UNLV game started at 10 o'clock Minnesota time.

The 30-27 "triple overtime" win?  Nyah, I'm not in love with that, but it's certainly better than a loss.  I was told that the Runnin' Rebels were one of the worst top-flight programs in the country last year.  But the Goofs are one of the worst BcS programs of the modern age, so you could expect a tight game.  And hey, at least they got their first road win of the year out of the way early.

Now let's hope they break their second-flight loss jinx when they host New Hampshire next Saturday afternoon.

#-4: Twins (Last Week: -3).  No, they did win more than one game.  In fact they actually finished above .500 -- at least for the week, at 4-3.  They avoided a sweep by finally beating the Texas Rangers, went back home to Target Field for a quick four-game series against Seattle and lost three of them.  But at least they took both games of an old-fashioned "true" doubleheader in Kansas City today (Saturday).  This is not one of those day-night doubleheaders, which is what doubleheaders are these days because it allows the home team to flush the entire crowd of the day game out and collect attendance revenue from a second game that day.  Here, best that I know, they actually "played two," where the fans could just stay in their seats because they were going to play, like, 30 minutes after they ended the first one.

The Twinks' quest to avoid 100 losses continues with a seek for the sweep of the Royals.  They then go to Comiskey and play the White Sox starting on Labor Night, then start a ten-game homestand with a trio Friday against Cleveland.